U.S.A

It had the feel of the 2016 presidential campaign, but with the roles reversed.
In Illinois, Barack Obama – now the former president – went after his successor by name, calling on young voters to vote in November to "restore some semblance of sanity to our politics." He did so reluctantly, he said, because of a “wise American tradition of ex-presidents gracefully exiting the political st

In the months since a gunman ended 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, students from Parkland, Florida have pushed for the passage of a state gun control law, organized a massive march in the nations capital, and embarked on a nationwid

The four days of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh included noisy protests, partisan battles, and plenty of drama.
Heres a look at some of the most powerful moments as the Senate Judiciary Committee considered P

A federal judge sentenced George Papadopoulos, a onetime aide to President Donald Trump’s campaign, to two weeks in prison and a $9,500 fine on Friday for lying to federal agents about conversations in which he was told that the Russian g

REDDING, Calif. Jeff and Nancy Heintz were driving on Interstate 5 from Seattle to their home in Arizona when they saw a large cloud of smoke in the distance.
It was Wednesday afternoon, and a fast-moving wildfire was bearing down on the busy free

Billy Ray Irick felt searing pain akin to torture before he died in a Tennessee prison in August, but steps taken before his execution blocked signs of suffering, according to a doctor who reviewed information about the lethal injection.
Dr. David

President Donald Trump on Monday rebuked European allies on the eve of a NATO summit, complaining that the United States spends more on collective defense than its 28 North Atlantic partners.
"The United States is spending far more on N

President Trump has declared that he has the “absolute” right to pardon himself.
Americans disagree.
By more than 3-1, 64 percent to 18 percent, those surveyed in a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll say the president doesn’t h

The sights and sounds of children being ripped from their parents by government officials are not proving politically popular as the Trump administration continues to enforce its "zero-tolerance" policy toward illegal immigration.
Amid

Some seem to know only one word, "Mami" or "Papá." Others plead to know when their aunt or parent will come to pick them up. Altogether, the 7-minute tape of children separated from their parents and held at a detention cen

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski suffered some financial fallout for appearing to snidely dismiss a migrant girl with Down syndrome during an appearance on Fox News.
Leading Authorities Inc., a Washington, D.C., firm that specializ

An FBI agent wrapped in controversy because of text messages hed written about President Trump and his role in several of the most politically contentious investigations at the bureau in recent months has been subpoenaed by Congress.
Peter Strzok

Disobedience 2017
President Donald Trumps abrupt change in tone on family separations this week exhibited a rare public capitulation for a president who never apologizes, never backs down and never admits he was wrong.
But in another sense,

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said they are looking into accusations of racial profiling raised in a viral video that showed a Border Patrol agent detaining two U.S. citizens at a Montana gas station because they were speaking Spanish.

Scott Pruitts future as EPA Administrator is on shaky ground over a series of ethical lapses, misconduct allegations and lavish spending that have prompted several Republicans to join Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups in demanding h

President Trump said Wednesday his administration is considering a plan to cut foreign aid to countries that do not help stem the flow of immigrants entering the United States illegally.
"Many of these countries we give tremendous amoun

The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation paving the way for a major overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the way veterans access health care in the private sector at government expense.
The measure’s passage

Jared Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser, had his security clearance restored after almost three months in limbo.
Kushners lawyer said Wednesday that Kushner completed the background check process that began last year. It was

President Trump called for tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts Wednesday, potentially expanding to the auto industry the same protectionist measures hes threatened on aluminum and steel.
Trump said he asked Commerce Secretary Wil

Amy McGrath’s latest campaign ad features a retired Marine Corps captain describing how the congressional candidate from Kentucky dropped a bomb on an enemy compound and “turned the tide for us” in the battle for the Iraqi city of N

Its official: President Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
On Tuesday, 18 members of Congress — all Republicans — sent a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, nominating Trump to receive the award for his work to &q

White House lawyer Ty Cobb is leaving President Trumps legal team, officials said Wednesday, as Trump jousts with special counsel Robert Mueller over the Russia investigation.
“For several weeks, Ty Cobb has been discussing his retirement, a

Republicans have some serious pick-up opportunities in the Senate — so why do they keep giving ammunition to Democrats?
There are more than two dozen Senate Democrats and Independents up for re-election in November. Ten of those are in state

The Russia investigation may now lead to a question that has triggered legal debate for more than four decades: Can prosecutors subpoena a sitting president to testify before a grand jury?
The simple answer: No one knows for sure.
While differe

Changing his story, President Trump acknowledged a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels on Thursday, but said a non-disclosure agreement was "used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair."

A federal judge on Thursday ruled that an American with suspected ties to the Islamic State being held in Iraq cant be transferred to another country.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District of Columbia issued the preliminary injunction

President Trump defended fired national security advisor Michael Flynn on Friday after the release of memos from fired FBI director James Comey portrayed the president as questioning Flynns judgment.
"So General Michael Flynn’s life can

Barbara Pierce Bush, the former first lady whose cloud of white hair and strands of fake pearls became her signature, died at her Houston home Tuesday after a long struggle with congestive heart failure and pulmonary disease. The down-to-earth matria

According to Greenberg, Trump, as Barron, said he owned much of the familys business and that he should be called a billionaire.
Even then, Greenberg wrote, he thought some of this wasnt true.
"But it took decades to unwind the elaborate f

Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the White House he might resign if President Trump fires the deputy attorney general overseeing the investigation into Russian election meddling, according to The Washington Postand The Wall Street Journal, each ci

The Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit Friday against the Russian government, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, alleging they conspired to influence the 2016 election in favor of President Trump.
The lawsuit alleges that Russia found a

Now comes the spectacle of a president and a former vice president talking about physical violence against each other.
Responding to what he called a threat from ex-veep Joe Biden, President Trump tweeted Thursday that Biden is only trying to act

Now comes the spectacle of a president and a former vice president talking about physical violence against each other.
Responding to what he called a threat from ex-veep Joe Biden, President Trump tweeted Thursday that Biden is only trying to act

Longtime Wisconsin GOP operative Mark Block, who has a history of campaign missteps, has been named as a key player in the international uproar over Cambridge Analytica, a London-based firm that mined data from 50 million Facebook users to try

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired on Twitter by President Trump after a 14-month tenure. USA TODAY
Here are the notable firings and resignations of the Trump administration, starting with the most recent departure:
March 16: Andrew

EDITORS NOTE: A version of this essay also appears in the Columbia Journalism Review.
I was crashing on deadline when the emails started flowing into my inbox. Hope Hicks, the White House communications director — who had been with President

Bones discovered on a Pacific island in 1940 are "likely" to be those of famed pilot Amelia Earhart, according to a US peer reviewed science journal.
Earhart, her plane, and her navigator vanished without a trace in 1937 over the Pacific

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for the European Union to be exempted from new US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
"The best option would be [for the EU] to be excluded," she told business leaders gathered in Munich.

Two museum guides have helped identify a 17th Century artist whose painting hangs in a California museum after sunlight was reflected onto it.
The name of the artist - and date of when the work was painted - had been a mystery for decades, accordi

A federal investigation has found a Wisconsin hospital did not do enough to protect newborn infants from abuse, a report obtained by US media says.
Five infants were found with unexplained injuries, ranging from bruising to skull and arm fractures

Job creation in the US economy surged last month, but the annual rate of wage growth slowed.
The economy created 313,000 jobs in February, official figures show, far in excess of analysts expectations.
However, the unemployment rate remained at

Martin Shkreli, the former drug firm executive found guilty of defrauding investors, has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
The 34-year-old wept at a hearing as a federal court judge in Brooklyn, New York, handed down the prison term.
Shk

North Koreas decision to meet US President Donald Trump proves the US strategy of isolating North Korea is working, US Vice-President Mike Pence says.
The US has made "zero concessions", he said, and would maintain pressure until denucle

President Trump, who has said he doesnt like to settle lawsuits, has settled with former members at his golf course in Jupiter, Fla.
Golfers who held memberships to the Ritz-Carlton Golf Course before Trump bought it 2012 contend he failed to give

A group led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sued Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Monday over his refusal to call special elections to fill two open legislative seats.
Fresh off a victory in a Senate special election last month, Wisc

With two brief sentences, the Supreme Court on Monday dramatically changed the debate over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the fate of nearly 700,000 undocumented immigrants who are part of it.
The uncertainty hoverin

This is a story about a man, his floating home and his penchant for hauling public officials before the Supreme Court.
Fane Lozman has performed this latter feat not once, but twice — the equivalent of 30 minutes of fame, rather than a mere

oday’s political polarization runs so deep that it is being weaponized against us by our adversaries. When Russian operatives infected our electoral process with online propaganda aimed at sowing discord in our politics, they found our democrat

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said the past two weeks have been a “difficult time” as he grappled with the findings of a VA inspector generals investigation that concluded he improperly accepted airfare for his wife and W

Sen. Joe Donnelly — one of the most vulnerable Democrats facing re-election this year in a state President Trump easily carried — has been careful not to be too critical of the president.
But Donnelly is not showing the same hesitancy

Special counsel Robert Mueller revealed another criminal charge on Tuesday in his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, this time against a lawyer who had worked with some of President Trumps former campaign aides.
Prosecuto

Days after Floridas school shooting, the search for answers ramps up
Its a tweet shared nearly 65,000 times: "Deeper even than the gun problem is this: boys are broken." The message from comedian Michael Ian Black sparked an online debat

A former aide to Donald Trumps presidential campaign is expected to plead guilty in a deal with the special counsel investigating ties to Russia.
Rick Gates was charged with conspiracy to launder money in October, along with his colleague and form

Influential internet rights pioneer John Perry Barlow has died, aged 70.
Mr Barlow was a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) that campaigns on digital rights issues and was a director of the organisation for many years.
He wa

US budget hawks have labelled a plan to hike defence and domestic spending by hundreds of billions of dollars as a debt-ballooning "monstrosity".
In a rare show of bipartisanship, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic c

One of US President Donald Trumps top aides has resigned amid abuse claims from his two ex-wives.
White House staff secretary Rob Porter said "these outrageous allegations are simply false" as he announced he would step down.
The accu

President Trump calls it a "Witch Hunt," but the Justice Department on Friday strongly defended special counsel Robert Muellers probe into Russias involvement in the 2016 election.
On the same day that House Republicans, backed by Trump

Police say a 2-year-old Akron girl died after her mother found her outside in freezing weather on the familys front porch Friday afternoon.
The mother, who was not identified, frantically called 911 and said her daughter was "frozen." Th

Ignition interlock laws are the key to preventing drunken driving, according to a report by Mothers Against Drunk Driving that tracks the progress states have made in requiring individual breathalyzers for some motorists.
"When I started wor

President Trump says hell use his State of the Union address Tuesday to make a bipartisan appeal to Congress on immigration and infrastructure in the coming year.
But first, Trump isnt quite done talking about the year thats passed.
Trump said

A US ban on refugees from 11 "high-risk" countries has been lifted but any who seek to enter the country will face new security measures, officials say.
They will undergo risk-based assessments before admission, says Homeland Security Se

Canadian police say they are in the midst of an "unprecedented" investigation as they search for more victims of an alleged serial killer.
Self-employed Toronto landscaper Bruce McArthur, 66, currently faces five counts of first-degree m

The Federal Bureau of Investigations deputy director, whom US President Donald Trump repeatedly accused of political bias, has resigned.
Andrew McCabe was pressured to quit by FBI Director Christopher Wray in advance of an inspector general report

Chinese efforts to exert covert influence over the West are just as concerning as Russian subversion, the director of the CIA has said.
Mike Pompeo told the BBC that the Chinese "have a much bigger footprint" to do this than the Russians

Tickets for US President Donald Trumps first State of the Union address later on Tuesday have had to be urgently reprinted because of a glaring typo which lawmakers mocked.
The offending tickets invited people to attend Mr Trumps "State of th

Eight men have been charged over the death of a US graduate found beaten on the Greek island of Zakynthos on 7 July, local media report.
Texas native Bakari Henderson, 22, was brutally attacked after he left a bar following a dispute, police said.

Former astronaut Julie Payette has been tapped by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be Canadas next governor general.
Mr Trudeau announced the nomination on Thursday, after considering both francophone and aboriginal candidates for the largely cere

A Texas man who found himself trapped inside a cash machine slipped "help me" notes through the receipt slot.
The man, who police say was working on a renovation of the bank, left his phone in his vehicle before getting stuck in the driv

US Senate Republicans have released a revamped health bill in a bid to rally their divided party around its seven-year campaign to repeal Obamacare.
The plan retains key Obamacare taxes on the wealthy, while allowing insurers to offer less coverag

US President Donald Trump has said his eldest sons controversial meeting last year with a Russian lawyer counted as "opposition research".
Speaking at a news conference during a visit to Paris, Mr Trump said "most people" would

French President Emmanuel Macron said he "respected" Donald Trumps decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord but that France would remain committed.
"On climate we know what our differences are," Mr Macron said in Paris

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Wednesday will begin an in-depth review of major national monuments established over the past two decades, potentially setting the stage for President Trump to become the first commander in chief in history to rescind

The Trump administration said Tuesday that recent trade disputes with Canada over lumber and milk bolstered President Trump’s argument that it is time to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“It shows NAFTA has not work

Fresh off his successful Supreme Court battle, President Trump will now try his luck stocking the federal appeals court with conservative jurists — and Democrats are mostly powerless to stop him.
First up is Judge Amul R. Thapar, whom Mr. Tr

The homicide rate may be rising in some U.S. cities, but slayings are still a localized phenomenon, with most U.S. counties not seeing a single homicide in 2014.
The vast majority of homicides occurred in just 5 percent of counties, and even there

A judge blocked President Trump’s anti-sanctuary city executive order Tuesday, accusing the White House of wrongly trying to threaten the cities and saying Congress, not the president, gets to decide what strings to attach to federal funds.

Congressional negotiators closed in on a spending deal Tuesday after President Trump backed off his demand for border wall funding, saying he doesn’t need an immediate infusion of cash for the project, clearing the way for Capitol Hill to hash

President Trump’s son said Monday that his father has shown “tremendous backbone” in dealing with the continuing crises in North Korea and Syria.
“You pray for peace. [But] at the same time my father has tremendous backbone

Looking to tarnish Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s political image, a conservative group announced Monday that it is launching an effort to tear the Massachusetts senator down ahead of her re-election race next year and possible 2020 presidential bid.

A last-minute spate of court orders has derailed Arkansas’ unprecedented eight-men-in-11-days execution schedule, sending the state into a race against the clock to reverse the rulings before a key lethal injection drug expires April 30.
Nob

Even if a Democrat emerges as the top vote-getter in Georgia’s special congressional election Tuesday, the race is almost certain to go to a runoff, where Republican strategists said they will prevail and notch another win for President Trump.

President Trump is threatening to cut off critical Obamacare payments to insurers unless Democrats come to the table to negotiate a new health care bill, taking a tough negotiating stance that could force Democratic leaders into a government shutdown

Sometime around November, word began to trickle back down the spine of Latin America: The U.S. was getting stricter about letting in Haitians at the border.
Not only had the Obama administration begun deporting Haitians after a six-year humanitari

Donald Trump Jr., rumored to be eyeing a move to follow his father’s footsteps into politics, will not be a candidate for governor of New York next year but is not ruling out a possible run for office in the future.
The younger Trump,

A Denver man who said marijuana intoxication caused him to kill his wife in 2014 was sentenced Friday to 30 years behind bars for second-degree murder.
Richard Kirk learned his fate Friday nearly three years to the day after he fatally shot his wi

Drone operators caught flying unmanned aircraft near any of 133 different military installations will be subject to arrest under new rules taking effect this week, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.
Citing “national security co

An early indication that next week’s March for Science may be more about politics than the periodic table is the brouhaha over Bill Nye, the Science Guy.
Mr. Nye’s selection as honorary co-chairman raised hackles not because he is argu

In what Attorney General Jeff Sessions is heralding “a new era,” the Justice Department is prioritizing criminal prosecution of illegal immigrants and smugglers to support the Trump’ administration’s immigration enforcement pl

The Food and Drug Administration has announced an outbreak of E. coli linked to soy nut butter products from a Kentucky-based processing plant.
Dixie Dew Products in Erlanger, Kentucky, was identified as the most likely source of E coli contaminat

Mohamed Soltan, an American who was imprisoned for nearly two years in Egypt, says he is optimistic that President Trump will do a better job than former President Barack Obama in securing the release of the other U.S. citizens detained by the milita

President Donald Trump says that the United States is prepared to act alone if China does not take a tougher stand against North Korea’s nuclear program.
Trump’s comments in an interview with the Financial Times come just days be

President Trump made brief remarks Monday about the subway bombing in St. Petersburg, Russia, saying that the deadly attack was “absolutely a terrible thing.”
The bomb blast on a subway train in Russia’s second-largest city kille

The Homeland Security Department has been reluctant to send helicopters on nighttime missions to aid the Border Patrol, leaving agents to face drug smugglers and illegal immigrants without critical air cover, the chief of the agents’ labor unio

Judge Neil Gorsuch took a big step toward confirmation to the Supreme Court Monday as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve his nomination, setting up a final floor vote at the end of this week.
The 11-9 vote broke down along party lines

Civil liberties groups and privacy advocates seeking to rein in border agents’ warrantless searches of cellphones are backing the appeal of Turkish man’s conviction for attempting to smuggle firearms parts out of the United States, arguin

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is outraged over reports of a massive physician shortage expected by 2030 — because he doesn’t believe it.
In a wide-ranging recent report, the Association of American Medical Colleges predicts that by 2030 the U.S.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has issued four cables to US diplomatic posts abroad over the past two weeks that recommend additional steps consular officers should take when vetting visa applicants, in the first glimpse of the “extreme vetti

WASHINGTON — Picking themselves up after the bruising collapse of their health care plan, President Trump and Republicans in Congress will start this week on a legislative obstacle course that will be even more arduous: the first overhaul of th

With health care stalled on Capitol Hill, the pressure now shifts to President Trump and new Health and Human Services Secretary Thomas Price, who will have to manage a law Republicans say is failing on its own — without giving Democrats more a

President Trump is leaving behind the failed health care bill and forging ahead with plans for massive tax cuts, but the same forces that doomed the repeal of Obamacare — united opposition from Democrats and divided Republicans — threaten

The Obama administration last year began the process of granting legal status to a 36-year-old illegal immigrant with a long criminal rap sheet whom agents had twice tried to deport and who now stands accused of killing his 15-year-old girlfriend, mo

Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Trump, on Tuesday denied colluding with Russia during last year’s campaign, a day after his name was brought up multiple times at a House intelligence committee hearing.
Mr. Stone said he has no

D.C. lawmakers are pushing to change the date of the city’s 2018 primary election to comply with federal election laws.
Council member Charles Allen, who chairs the committee that oversees the D.C. Board of Elections, introduced Tuesday a bi

Judge Neil Gorsuch said Tuesday he’s perfectly ready to rule against President Trump, the man who nominated him to the Supreme Court, should the law require it, taking a firm stand for judicial independence as he sought to win confirmation to t

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Tuesday that Republicans have finally struck the sweet spot of getting a conservative Obamacare repeal bill that can actually get through the Senate, and predicted passage.
Just minutes after President Trump made a

President Trump put NASA on course for deep space exploration Tuesday, signing a bill that authorizes $19.5 billion in funding to revive the agency’s manned-space flight program and plan missions to Mars and beyond.
Mr. Trump spoke of the re

The Justice Department is providing nearly $8.5 million to aid victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting and to reimburse costs associated with the operation of a center that provided assistance to families in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

Nancy Pelosi says President Trump is the reason she’s sticking around.
She’d be “gone by now” if Hillary Clinton had won in November, the House minority leader told reporters last week.
But with Mr. Trump in the White Ho

President Trump’s revised travel ban is set to go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, but first the executive order must survive a gauntlet of legal challenges slated to be heard Wednesday in courtrooms across the country.
Those challenging

President Trump vowed to have health care coverage for everybody, to cut costs and to leave Medicaid alone during his historic romp to the White House, but the Republican health care plan he has endorsed would flout each of those promises.
The Con

Nearly 500 jurisdictions are now sanctuary cities, according to a group that’s tracked the issue for more than a decade, and who said there’s been a massive surge in the number of places trying to thwart federal immigration agents since P

On the eve of Tuesday’s Winter Storm Stella, the National Weather Service got reports that its dire prediction of up to two feet of snow for New York City may have been exaggerated — but decided not to change its forecast.
Fears of a m

The White House said Monday that the Justice Department’s firing of 46 U.S. attorneys was standard practice for a new administration, while speculation grew that former Manhattan federal prosecutor Preet Bharara turned his firing into a cause c

Congressional Democrats signaled Monday that they’re ready to block spending bills over President Trump’s planned border wall, raising the risks of a new government shutdown early in the new administration.
Adding more immigration agen

Republicans’ plan to repeal and replace Obamacare would cut spending by more than $300 billion over the next decade but would result in 24 million fewer people holding health insurance, Congress’ official scorekeeper said Monday, creating

WASHINGTON — It began at 6 p.m. Thursday as a conspiratorial rant on conservative talk radio: President Barack Obama had used the “instrumentalities of the federal government” to wiretap the Republican seeking to succeed him. This &

When Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, President’s Trump’s national security adviser, appeared at a Washington think tank last year, he asserted that the Islamic State terrorist group “can’t be contained.”
It was an assess

Republicans are racing to put the finishing touches on a health care plan that may need sweetening to avert an ugly clash with conservatives who have blasted the effort as secretive and substandard, as House leaders enter a three-week sink-or-swim st

Russian conspiracy allegations will continue to dog the White House until President Trump gets a handle on the administration’s opponents inside the U.S. intelligence community who are driving the story, warned Republican strategists in Washing

Sen. Rand Paul on Friday said conservatives are being told to “take it or leave it” when it comes to the emerging House GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, setting up a major clash with leaders hoping to mark up legislation as soon

Gang activity is “getting out of control” in Northern Virginia and to blame for the deaths of two people whose remains were found in a Fairfax County park, police officials said Friday announcing the gruesome discovery.
The remains of

First lady Melania Trump visited a pediatrics ward Thursday to read to sick children to mark National Reading Month.
Mrs. Trump brought a copy of Dr. Seuss’ “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” and read to children at New York Presb

Two MS-13 gang members from El Salvador, both in the United States illegally, held three teenage girls against their will and killed one of them in what was described as a satanic ritual, authorities in Houston said Friday.
Miguel Alvarez-Flores,

Arnold was really fired — by bad ratings, says President Trump.
The tweeter-in-chief on Saturday couldn’t resist a dig at his “Celebrity Apprentice” successor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who announced a day earlier that he&rsquo

President Trump lashed out at his predecessor early Saturday, claiming Obama had a wire tap on Trump Tower just before the election.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victor

With the ascension of former Sen. Jeff Sessions to attorney general and several of his former staff installed at the White House and federal agencies, immigration policy experts are sensing a sea change in Washington.
Advocates and policy staff of

President Donald Trump is taking his fate into his own hands.
Reeling from a week that included the firing of his national security adviser, the withdrawal of a Cabinet nominee and persistent questions over contacts between his campaign and Russia,

The Senate voted Friday to confirm Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency despite a last-ditch effort by Democrats to delay the vote after a judge ruled that Pruitt must release about 3,000 emails relating to his communication with

The latest and one of the most powerful in a string of deadly storms marched through California, killing at least two people, flooding freeways, triggering mudslides and raising new fears whether the Oroville Dam will hold.
Unlike some of the past

Without ever mentioning President Trump by name, Sen. John McCain used a speech in Germany on Friday as an international platform in an apparent blast at his fellow Republican’s policies and worldview.
Speaking at the 2017 Munich Security Co

Maricopa County jails will no longer detain people flagged by federal authorities as a courtesy for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sheriff Paul Penzone said Friday evening.
Penzone told reporters that earlier Friday, his office had

Small, scattered protests took place on Friday, Sputnik reported, around central Washington a few blocks from the White House. The windows of a Starbucks were smashed in and an empty limousine was set ablaze. 217 people were arrested in all, t

McCain expressed readiness to work with the new US president to tackle numerous problems facing the country.
"Congrats to POTUS [President of the United States] Trump and VP [Vice President] Pence this Inauguration Day — loo

McConnell made remarks during the confirmation hearings of retired General James Mattis secretary of defense and retired General John Kelly as secretary for homeland security on Friday.
"There is a lot the minority can do to drag

New US President Donald Trump is celebrating his inauguration at the Liberty and Freedom ball in Washington, DC.
Trump will be making remarks at the soiree, hosted at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, and will feature his fir

Earlier in the day, the vote on Trumps pick for CIA director Congressman Mike Pompeo was delayed until Monday due to resistance of the Democratic senators.
“[S]end no regulation to the Office of the Federal Register… until

According to the instructions document, it is forbidden for websites to carry out live streaming or picture reports of the inauguration.
The press was only allowed to use reports of the inauguration ceremony written by central state me

President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to testify under oath at Trump Tower in January, just weeks before the inauguration, in lawsuits tied to his Washington D.C. hotel. His lawyers are battling over special conditions Trump is seeking beca

President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to serve as secretary of Energy, according to reports by CBS News and NBC News.
The former GOP presidential hopeful beat out two contenders for the Cabinet post: Sen.

The director of a West Virginia non-profit who was suspended for a racist post about Michelle Obama that sparked national outrage will return to work later this month, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
“It wi

President-elect Donald Trump officially nominated ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of State on Tuesday, setting up a possible confirmation battle over the nominees oil business ties to Russia.
While Democrats and even some Repub

RANGER, Texas — The leaders of this former oil boomtown never gave 2-year-old Adam Walton a chance to avoid the poison.
It came in city water, delivered to his family’s tap through pipes nearly a century old. For almost a year

The billionaire CEO building the Dakota Access Pipeline will continue to hold a music festival bearing the name Cherokee, a Native American tribe. But theres a problem: Some artists are refusing to perform.
Kelcy Warren, the founder

Nearly 600 patients who received dental care at a Wisconsin Veterans Affairs medical center may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis B and C and now face an anxious wait to find out if they were infected.
Earlier this week, officials said a den

His friends know him as "Mo." And he is the most unlikely ISIS recruit you will ever meet.
In fact, in virtually every way Mo, whose real name is Muhammad Dakhlalla, was an ordinary and typical American college student. But he was ar

Donald Trump should elect a cybersecurity ambassador to help keep the US secure, a new report says.
The 100-page document highlights areas where the US falls short and calls on the private sector to help hasten the improvement of digital servi

Chinas foreign ministry says it has lodged a complaint with the US after President-elect Donald Trump spoke to Taiwans leader in a phone call.
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province. US policy set in 1979 cut all formal relations with Taiwa

Less than a week after meeting with Hillary Clinton, Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson has endorsed her.
In an op-ed in The Washington Post Wednesday, Mckesson explained why he was finally backing Clinton. He has met with Clinton multiple

WASHINGTON — Democrat Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency has drawn more support from Wall Street fundraisers than President Obama received from the industry four years ago, a new analysis shows.
Clinton’s ranks of elite fun

If you have been talking about Donald Trump or Mike Pence on Facebook this month, odds are you are a woman.
USA TODAYs Facebook Barometer revealed last week that Trump is generating record amounts of traffic on Facebook. But a deeper dive into the

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Four of the eight tires on a bus that crashed into the back of a trailer on Interstate 10 Sunday, killing 13 people, had unsafe tread levels, investigators said Tuesday.
During a preliminary investigation of the

A New York teenager was arrested Monday after authorities say he punched his high school principal, according to local reports.
Luis Penzo, 18, a student at Manhattan Early College for Advertising, was arrested on assault charges Tuesday, CBS2 rep

Former speaker of the House and top Donald Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich got into a heated exchange with Fox News host Megyn Kelly over the women who have accused Trump of groping them.
Gingrich felt the media has given an inordinate amount of cov

A Law Firm in the US capital Washington revealed its intention to raise a request to the US judiciary to force the intelligence official of the sanctions committee at the US Treasury Department, "Daniel Glaser," to reveal the source o

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is facing questions about his campaigns vetting process and hiring decisions following a slew of bad publicity about his newly installed campaign chief Stephen Bannon, including a

President Obamas former campaign manager called Donald Trump a "psychopath" Sunday, continuing the 2016 campaigns descent into questions about the heath and mental fitness of the candidates for president.
"Basical

To hear the Hillary haters tell it, the Democratic presidential nominee is suffering from a number of critical illnesses that render her unfit for office and which she is hiding from the public. Rudy Giuliani, now a leading Donald Tru

Hillary Clinton, with her fact-based argument that Donald Trump is encouraging racism, white nationalism and “taking hate groups mainstream,” has now given the speech that many Republicans no doubt wish they had made five

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s failure to detect the extramarital affair and “swinger lifestyle” of a top general despite background checks that likely included polygraph tests exposes flaws in vetting those entrusted

Hillary Clintons aide John Podesta officially announced on Sunday that the former Secretary of State intends to seek the presidency of the United States for the second time.
Podesta said that Clinton is gearing up to “hit the road to Iow

The Obama administration is investigating two Secret Service agents over allegations they drove a government car into White House security barricades after drinking at a nearby party last week.
The Washington Post reported that officers

Two police officers were shot outside the Ferguson Police Department early Thursday as the Missouri town saw fresh demonstrations following last weeks release of a damning Justice Department report alleging bias in the police departme

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the organization that coordinates American special forces. It is the U.S. Special Operations Command.
The helicopter crash in the Gulf of Mexico presumed

A video of University of Oklahoma fraternity members engaging in a racist chant outraged and angered students across the campus, but its release also has sparked a dialogue that many students hope will lead to positive changes at the

The triggerman in the sensational Pamela Smart murder trial is getting his first chance for parole, 25 years after he gunned down the husband of his lover and instructor and launched a case that became an instant tabloid sensation.
William &qu

Nearly two dozen soldiers from an Army platoon were on patrol in a dangerous valley in southern Afghanistan when a motorcycle sped toward them, ignoring commands to stop.
As he tells it, First Lt. Clint Lorance, the platoon leader, ordered

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel hopes to avoid being forced into a runoff when voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to give the former White House chief of staff a second term.
Emanuel is poised to get the most votes after hav

Divided Republicans are searching for a way out of an impasse over immigration that is threatening to shut down the Homeland SecurityDepartment within days.
With the agencys budget set to expire Friday at midnight without action by Congre

It was one of the top issues raised at last week’s White House Summit to Counter Violent Extremism: How can communities curb the advanced recruiting tactics pushed by ISIS and other radical Islamist groups?
But just a

Two people who were near an industrial plant on the night former NFL star Aaron Hernandez is accused of killing an acquaintance testified today they heard a series of loud bangs that prosecutors argue were gunshots.
One wom

The 19-year-old accused of murder after a reported road rage incident in Las Vegas made his first court appearance today, after his lawyer said in an exclusive interview that his client was acting in self-defense and that no